Treating the Root Cause

Through this constant upgrading, he discovered so much more about the human body and it led him to his current practice mantra: treating the root cause of any injury.  

“I believe that treating the root cause of any injuries is vital to solving pain for the long term.  And I really want to make a difference”. 

Darek realised that what he had learned traditionally was focus mostly on solving the symptoms and not looking at the problem holistically.   There were a number of insightful cases that help him to see the root cause of the injury.  

For example, there as this gentleman who had a persistent shoulder pain who was unresponsive to the usual physio treatment.  He discovered that the shoulder pain was connected to an old abdominal surgery that has altered his posture.  His root cause of his shoulder injury was the scarring at the abdomen! The physio session took on another approach to address the abdominal scar tissue with long lasting pain relief to his shoulder.

Moving on, perfecting skills, connecting the dots

After 8 years in the hospital, Darek felt that he did not have the time luxury with his patients to explore about the root cause of their problems.  The hectic scheduling at times needed him to see two to three patients at a go!  This didn’t align with his mantra.

In 2013, he made a bold decision to start his own practice, BMJ Physiotherapy clinic.  At his own clinic,  he made it a point to spend more quality time with each patient to further dive into clear diagnosis, investigating root causes and to tweak his treatments.  Giving enough time for this patient also means that his patients could feel a lot more care, concern and the 360 degrees attention.

The rigour of running his own clinic still didn’t stop him from continuous education momentum he had from his early years. With adequate patient mileage and the latest physio knowledge/ research he was now able to help his patients connect the dots between the current pain, your past injury, lifestyle and even your environment factor can all be root causes to be your injury.

“Your sessions are different to others I have attended!”  these remarks are common with patients who consulted with Darek and his BMJ team. “I can understand my problems a lot better now.”

He remembered this other case, a 40 plus gentleman who came in for rehabilitation after this left knee cartilage surgery. As his rehab progressed, his analysis and investigation led him to conclude that the reason why he needed to do a left knee surgery was due to a right knee injury he suffered years ago that he didn’t recovered from. So over the years, he had to overly rely on his left knee for his sports.  

So as they realised, the physio treatment eventually have to focus on this unoperated side.  Thankfully, he was eventually able to equalise both his leg strength for him to return to running!

These and many more examples are evident in the google and facebook reviews.

Passing on BMJ physiotherapy skills

With all these years of accumulated knowledge running BMJ physiotherapy, Darek made a decision to mentor the next generation of physio so as to start a movement of discovering root causes.  He is able to put his treatment methodology into 3 steps: BMJ’s ACT therapy.  Through a series of steps, BMJ physiotherapists can figure out the root cause of your injury achieving long term pain relief. (see below)

His commitment to mentor the next generation of physios is seen in his weekly mentor sessions with his team

“ I believe  collective intelligence and nurturing an environment where everyone can share and  learn openly. “  and this has been the intention he had set out from the word go.

“I plan to continue to challenge younger physio to raise their own standards and bring physiotherapy to the next level.”

BMJ three steps to discover the root cause of the pain

Bringing BMJ physio to the sporting world

Its has been 10 years since the inception of BMJ physio clinic, Darek is ready to bring physiotherapy to another level.

A recent survey done by ActiveSG found that regular participation in sport/physical activity reached an all time high of 72%!  They found out that the pandemic had reinforced value of active lifestyle for health and mental wellness.

This higher sports participation rate unfortunately do come with higher incidence of sports related injury.  This is where BMJ physio come in timely to offer and managed sports injury effectively at the primary care level.

“We have also notice how Singaporeans are more serious about their sports and wanting to bring their performance to another level and beyond”

As part of BMJ’s evolve mission, he is proud to bring on board a senior principal physiotherapist, Yeo Hwee Koon who has over 20 years of experience treating our national athletes in Singapore Sports Institute and FAS.

“After taking care of our country’s best athletes, I believe it is time to bring the same level of medical treatment to the rest of Singapore.”

“I am excited to join Darek and team BMJ because I can feel his passion often in not just simply solving the symptoms of any injury, but to deep dive into the factors that causes the injury”.

Together with BMJ treatment methodology and her expertise in treating elite athletes, they hope to bring top notch physiotherapy treatment to our recreational sport fraternity.  This expanded scope will make sports medicine and physiotherapy available to the wider population.

“I joined BMJ also because I share the same philosophy of nurturing our next generation of physiotherapists.  I look forward to partnering BMJ physio to create a community of happy healthy physically fit Singapore.”